Another NPR Article on us!

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » February 1st, 2006, 3:09 pm

Check it out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182721

That explains the many fresh faces popping up around here today! Welcome everyone and happy reading.

kri · Post by **kri** » February 1st, 2006, 3:15 pm

NPR Article wrote:In addition to bringing new fans to literary classics, sites like Librivox can also bring new authors to reading audiences. Publishing companies may not want to release older or more obscure book titles in traditional audiobook format because of the financial risk.

What the heck are they talking about? It seems to me they didn't really pay attention to what we're doing. Did I misunderstand the sentence?

Either way, this is great

But you probably don't recognize the voice.

Yes, I certainly do!

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » February 1st, 2006, 3:18 pm

It was a rather convoluted sentence. I think what they meant is that most publishing companies don't want to release new audiobooks of old works because there isn't much money to be made in it. But now, thanks to Librivox, new (old) authors are now available to a wider listening audience. At least that's what I think they meant!

kri · Post by **kri** » February 1st, 2006, 3:21 pm

Ahhhh, ok the authors are new to the audience, but not to the literary world.

rfrancis · Post by **rfrancis** » February 1st, 2006, 3:50 pm

LibraryLady wrote:Check it out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182721

That explains the many fresh faces popping up around here today! Welcome everyone and happy reading.

*takes a bow*

-R

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » February 1st, 2006, 5:19 pm

rfrancis wrote:*takes a bow*

**Applause**

But hey, why didn't you and/or Kara tell us about this??

kayray · Post by **kayray** » February 1st, 2006, 8:41 pm

kri wrote:
But you probably don't recognize the voice.

Yes, I certainly do!

Lol, my mom and my son and I were gathered around the radio when it came on and they both yelled "Yes we do!" :)

libriarylady wrote: But hey, why didn't you and/or Kara tell us about this??

Shy :)

And the very first time I was interviewed about librivox, for wired.com, they cut my bits out of the article -- since then, I don't mention it until I'm sure I'm actually in the thing :)

We'll be on another NPR show -- "The World" -- eventually, and I'll try to remember to mention it when it airs... Paula, Cyrus said he might interview you for that one too... did he? What a nice guy he is!

I was pleased with the thing on Day to Day. Xeni was a good interviewer and seemed to understand what we're doing. I liked RFrancis's point about introducing people to works which they might only know from movies, and I liked the point Kri quoted, about how we have no financial risk in reading lesser-known works. Made me think of the Lister book over in Going Solo :) There might be only a handful of people who ever listen to that one (or a million, what do I know) but I'll bet the ones who want to hear it will be overjoyed to find it for free online!

Kara

rfrancis · Post by **rfrancis** » February 2nd, 2006, 8:24 am

kayray wrote:
libriarylady wrote: But hey, why didn't you and/or Kara tell us about this??
Shy

I told Hugh.

I also told him that he could post it to the forum himself or whatever if he wanted -- for whatever reason I felt weird about doing so, which is funny, because I assure you I told all friends and family about it...

The whole thing was very peculiar as I haven't been tremendously active. If nothing else, it's nudged me to be more active -- I've got a second headset now that will travel with me and my iRiver so I can sit in the car and record a bit or whatever whenever I like...

kayray wrote: I was pleased with the thing on Day to Day. Xeni was a good interviewer and seemed to understand what we're doing. I liked RFrancis's point about introducing people to works which they might only know from movies, and I liked the point Kri quoted, about how we have no financial risk in reading lesser-known works. Made me think of the Lister book over in Going Solo There might be only a handful of people who ever listen to that one (or a million, what do I know) but I'll bet the ones who want to hear it will be overjoyed to find it for free online!

Kara

I liked the segment, also, and made Xeni to thank her for it (and in particular for things I said coming out as, in fact, what I meant; I've had bad previous experiences.) The movie comment was part of talking about Alice in Wonderland as an example, and my point is proven by the fact that I hadn't read any of it previously! Ditto Grimm's Fairy Tales, which I've recorded a couple of. I admit I've read Dracula and the Count of Monte Cristo, but it takes no imagination to suppose that there are many, many people who haven't, but are passing familiar with the works by movie or whatnot.

And I don't want to trash on movies by any means, but in many, many cases, they've only experienced a diluted version of the work. So we give them another way they can work in experiencing the unabridged work (which reminds me of something I wish had gotten said concerning the "these are free unlike traditional books on tape" -- traditional books on tape are often filthy expensive for unabridged versions!)

Anyway, it was fun and definitely an honor to represent Librivox, even if I sounded like a noseless badger with a cold.

-R

BradBush · Post by **BradBush** » March 8th, 2006, 8:47 pm

I was heading home from a business day trip from San Antonio, and was listening to some old podcasts. Well there is an NPR books podcast and the last story comes on and says "but you probably don't recognize the voice", and I almost yell out in the airport, "YES I DO!!". How fun to "accidentally" find old friends in unexpected places.

(link to the full NPR:Books podcast featuring LibriVox:
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/1032/5191067/npr_5191067.mp3 )

Brad

PS. On a forced break from LV right now, as work has been rough. Also can't get over my Chaucer recording block.

Post by **hugh** » March 9th, 2006, 7:24 am

hmmm ... maybe we need to start a thread: recorder's block ... how to beat it. I have a few blocked too...

Gesine · Post by **Gesine** » March 9th, 2006, 9:32 am

Hmmm yes... it's probably the same as with all other things one doesn't like doing, for whatever irrational reason... the longer one puts them off, the worse they seem, but when one finally gets around to doing them, they are often very quick and easy and even enjoyable! The mind sure can blow things out of proportion. It's good that we do this, though, because the sense of achievement and relief when one *gets it done* it is immense! :)

Brad, sometimes I read a very short piece to get in the mood - a poem, something quick to read and hardly any editing. I'm sure your Chaucer will be great, just give it a bash!

kri · Post by **kri** » March 9th, 2006, 11:31 am

I had a Chaucer block too, and realized why. I was really ambitious and wanted to try my best to insert as much of the middle english speech as I could. That's what was preventing me, and I gave up and decided to just read it as I felt comfortable. I'm not nearly happy with the result, but it gets the recording out there.

ChipDoc · Post by **ChipDoc** » March 9th, 2006, 6:51 pm

Believe me kri, you're the only one who'll notice that it's not as good as you wish it to be. Just relax and speak the words.

Chaucer is an excellent example of something though. I try hard to read the words with meaning, but when I'm reading Chaucer I often have no idea of what the meaning IS. So I just read the words as they're printed on the screen and I've noticed this: even if I don't understand it at the time, understanding often comes when I listen to it in the editing process. The words themselves carry the power of understanding and so long as I speak them as they're written, the meaning seems to come through pretty well despite my ignorance.